Maine Panel Recommends Master-Teacher Program

After months of deliberation, the Commission on the Status of
Education in Maine has issued a preliminary report recommending higher
base pay for starting teachers and several changes in the state's
teacher-certification standards, including the creation of a
master-teacher status.

The commission's report recommends that the legislature appropriate
$100,000 to test the master-teacher concept in a number of school
districts.

But the most costly item in the report would be the increase in
teacher salaries recommended by the panel.

Richard W. Redmond, deputy commissioner of education, said the
commission report recommends raising the annual base pay for starting
teachers from the current level of $10,600 to $15,000 by September
1985. He said that proposal alone would cost an estimated $38 million
in the first year.

The need to raise teacher salaries, according to Mr. Redmond, who
served on the panel, "was one recommendation we heard more often than
any other statement" while conducting hearings throughout the
state.

In their recommendation on the teacher-certification standards, Mr.
Redmond said, the commission members are simply supporting the proposal
approved last year by the Maine Board of Education.

Under the state board's three-tiered certification plan, starting
teachers would be issued provisional certificates and would be eligible
for professional certificates after two years.

During that two-year probationary period, teachers with provisional
licenses would be required to undergo inservice training with
master-level teachers, according to Mr. Redmond.

Although the master-teacher plan has not been fully developed, money
to fund the pilot project has been included in Gov. Joseph E. Brennan's
budget proposal for the biennium, according to David Cheever, the
Governor's press secretary. "We're going to go ahead with the board's
teacher-certification proposal," he said.

The Governor has proposed $257 million in state aid to education for
the second year of the biennium. This year, the state is contributing
about $240 million to the schools.

In June, Mr. Cheever said, the Governor plans to call a special
session of the legisla-ture to consider education proposals. One of
those proposals is likely to be the teacher-certification standards
that establish a master-teacher system.

If approved by the legislature later this year, the proposed
certification standards would go into effect in 1987.

Assessment Tests

In addition to the recommendations on teacher certification and
salaries, the commission's report calls on the state department of
education to develop and put into effect statewide assessment tests to
determine students' progress throughout their school careers instead of
"just at the end of them," Mr. Redmond said. The report, he said, does
not specify at which grade levels the tests would be administered.

Mr. Redmond said the commission also recommended that Maine schools
use non-teaching staff members rather than classroom teachers to
perform noninstructional tasks.

So far, the commission has not taken up the issue of high-school
graduation standards or the possibility of extending the school year.
Those subjects may be included in the panel's final report, Mr. Redmond
said.

Vol. 03, Issue 22

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